GODAN, and Officials at Auburn, support university policies that permit access to university research in areas such as agriculture and nutrition. If such data was released, it could be used to enhance similar research across the globe and help respond to global challenges such as hunger and malnutrition.

The report is a result of an Auburn investigation of 99 PUSH member universities that found only 15 have open access policies, and that none have specific open data policies.

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The report also points out that open access and open data increase transparency, as well as citations and recognition of faculty and their universities. This increases the potential of identifying research collaborators and meeting funding requirements.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.